Exergo-sustainability indicators of a turboprop aircraft for the phases of a flight

• Exergetic indicators are developed to determine sustainability of an aircraft.
• The phases of taxi and landing for the aircraft have minimum exergy efficiency.
• Minimum exergetic sustainability index is found at the phases of taxi/landing.
• Exergetic efficiency is reasonably well in all phases except taxi/landing.

One of the key challenges for sustainable aviation is to reduce global and local environmental impacts. The scope of this study is analysed and discussed in detail for better understanding of sustainability performances of a turboprop aircraft. In this regard, this study presents exergetic sustainability indicators of the turboprop engine for eight flight phases. The results show that exergetic efficiency approaches a maximum value to be 29.2%, waste exergy ratio (to be 70.8%), exergetic destruction ratio (to be 0.41) and environmental effect factor (to be 2.43) become minimum values, whereas exergetic sustainability index approaches a maximum value (to be 0.41). The phases of taxi and landing for the turboprop aircraft have minimum exergy efficiency (to be 20.6%) and minimum exergetic sustainability index (to be 0.26). Accordingly, the exergetic efficiency, waste exergy ratio and exergetic sustainability index of the aircraft are reasonably well in the climb, maximum cruise/continuous, normal/maximum take-off and APR (automatic power reverse) phases. Finally, it is supposed that studying exergetic indicators for an aircraft enables how much improvement is possible for aircraft engines to achieve better sustainable aviation.